03 Jun Why Prospecting Puts a Damper on the Perfect Sales Day

Prospecting is certainly a key ingredient to successful sales results, but it is not a great ingredient in the perfect sales day for most sales professionals. While some love this aspect of the sales cycle, most abhore it. Why? Because it takes discipline in prioritizing prospecting activities, a lot of dedicated time, impeccable follow up skills, and a set of contact management tools that most quota carrying sales people don’t have.

First, lets start with priorities. All things being equal, sales professionals will prioritize their efforts in pursuing active deals that have already been well qualified. These opportunities represent the shortest path to new revenue.
Next, lets talk about time. Getting put on hold, being shut down by gatekeepers, and being transferred to voicemail jail is a tremendously time consuming effort.
Most sales professionals are not wired mentally to deal with what appears at face value to be time wasting activities. So, they simply rationalize in their mind that “they don’t have time for these sorts of efforts.”

Finally, lets lump the last two issues together; follow up and contact management tools. Prospecting requires a level of follow up and detail against a volume of contacts that most sales people have trouble managing. This is where purpose-built prospecting tools come into play. Certainly most CRM systems allow for this type of follow up, but like any system – garbage in gets you garbage out. Most sales professionals I know have a hard enough time doing the data entry required for their active opportunities. Trying to then also manage all the details about the many prospect records is too much.

So there you have it, prospecting puts a damper on the perfect sales day!

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Galloway is co-founder and President of OppSource. Prior to founding OppSource, Galloway was a partner at B2B marketing agency Sight Marketing and prior to Sight Marketing, he co-founded the marketing agency Wire The Market. Leading up to Galloway’s decade long journey as an entrepreneur, he was Vice President of Market Development at Adaytum where he helped take a startup analytics software company and built it into the world’s leading enterprise e-Planning solution that was ultimately sold to Cognos/IBM. Before Adaytum, Galloway started his career at Lawson Software (now part of INFOR), where he helped develop and market various software products, including leading the implementation of Lawson Software’s vertical market strategies as Vice President of Industry Marketing and Business Development.

Galloway is passionate about building the ultimate B2B lead machine so that the sales and marketing functions can work more seamlessly together. At OppSource, he and his teams are constantly focused on finding better ways to leverage technology, processes, and marketing best practices to improve the inquiry-to-revenue workflows and conversions.

Dan Metzger

Dan helped found OppSource in order to give B2B organizations a better way to efficiently and cost-effectively bring in quality leads that meet Marketing’s objectives and Sales’ requirements.

Dan has formidable experience enabling sales organizations to re-organize their coverage models to fit the change in todays B2B sales landscape. With 40 years’ experience as a go-to-marketing strategist, Dan’s focused on helping organizations strategically grow and win in their markets.

Dan has worked for IBM, served as EVP of Marketing at Lawson software, and is now the Chief Revenue Officer for OppSource.

Scott Schwefel

Chief Executive Officer/Owner

Discover Yourself, Inc.

Excelsior, Minnesota

2004 – present

Scott secured the Midwest distribution rights for Insights Learning and Development, headquartered in Scotland, after selling his interest in Benchmark Learning. Insights provides a Jungian based psychometric assessment, called the Insights Discovery Profile, which provides the basis for training, workshops and programs to enhance leadership skills, foster personal growth and enhance corporate communications. Scott has delivered the Discovery program throughout the world, and to over 2500 CEOs personally. Through Scott’s leadership, Discover Yourself, is now the largest distributor of Insights Discovery profiles in the United States.

Chief Executive Officer/Owner

Benchmark Computer Learning

Edina, Minnesota

1995-2003

Acquired all the education-related assets from Benchmark Network Systems in August 1995 to found Benchmark Computer Learning. Maintained majority ownership, with one investor. Grew Benchmark organically and through acquisitions, to become Minnesota’s largest technology training company in 2002, with 26 classrooms in 3 locations. Benchmark was also one of seven founders of United Training, the largest technology training consortium in the United States. Benchmark was also featured as one of Minnesota’s “Fast 50” rapidly growing privately-held firms in 1997 and 1998. The company delivered profitability on revenues of $10,000,000 in sales in 2003, and Scott sold Benchmark in March of that year to found Discover Yourself, Inc.

General Manager/Vice-President Sales/Co-Owner

Benchmark Network Systems

Edina, Minnesota

1991-1995

Responsible for Sales, Marketing, and Operations of the Company. Developed an education only strategy to capitalize on Benchmark’s reputation of student-customer satisfaction and networking expertise. Grew the sales force from 1 to 7, while implementing a new database contact management system. Increased revenues from less than $275,000 to over $2,800,000 annually, with no additional capital investment, and engineered the development and construction of our 7-classroom technical training facility, which was unmatched anywhere in Minnesota at that time.

Started a food manufacturing and distribution company with one active partner, and one silent investor, owning 33% of the company. Grew to 28 employees, with brokers and distributors in 11 states. Secured venture investment to design and construct a new manufacturing plant in excess of $1,100,000, while growing revenues to over $700,000 in less than three years. Sold the business assets in 1991 to Better Baked Pizza, a subsidiary of Schwanns Sales Enterprises, for over $2,000,000.

National Speakers Association Certified Speaking Professional (Top 8% of all Speakers) 2016

Insights Accredited Practitioner/Faculty/Associate Consultant 2004

Tedx Talk featured speaker, with over 1.5 million views

Education

Concordia University,

Saint Paul, Minnesota

BA in Organizational Behavior and Communications

Institute of Technology, University of Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota 1982-1985

John Orner

Mr. John E. Q. Orner serves as President and chief investment officer of Capital Asset Care, Inc. Mr. Orner serves as vice president, treasurer and chief investment officer at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. He is an accomplished treasury, investment, finance, mergers and acquisitions, debt and insurance risk management professional with more than 29 years of executive leadership and asset management experience. He has been a Director of Lifeworks Services, Inc. since April 2006. He has been a Director at CaringBridge Inc. since September 5, 2017.

Warren Herried

The K.A.H.R. Foundation is a family foundation started in 2005 by Jeannine M. Rivet and Warren G. Herreid II for philanthropic endeavors. The letters of the foundation name stand for the surnames of their parents families: Kahler, Archambault, Herreid and Rivet.

Warren is an ardent supporter of veterans and with his wife, helped design, build and give the Rock County Veterans Memorial to the citizens of Rock County, in honor of the brave veterans who gave their lives for their country, and all the veterans of Rock County who have proudly served in the armed forces.

Warren has been active in business for many years, owning and investing in a number of business interests.

Warren’s passions include cars, the military and architecture. More importantly, he and his wife are focused on helping others through their family foundation.

Jonathan Cohen

Jon has more than 28 years of experience in the financial services industry and specializes in financial planning, investment strategies and asset allocation. He is a member of the Raymond James Chairman’s Council,* an honor awarded to a select few within the firm.

His goal for his clients is financial independence, so they can have the freedom to do what they want, when they want. He is passionate about making a difference in his clients’ lives and having a positive influence that can last for generations. He is known not only for his integrity and common sense when it comes to all financial matters, but a sense of humor that complements his more serious side.

Jon began his career in 1988 at Drexel Burnham in New York City, and moved to Florida in 1991 to work together with his father, who he calls his inspiration and role model.

Jon earned a bachelor’s degree in political communications from George Washington University. As a postgraduate, he completed the Wealth Management Certification Program of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and the Securities Industry Association’s Branch Manager Development Program. Jon holds his Series 9, 10, 7, 63 and 65 licenses.

He earned the designation of Accredited Wealth Management Advisor from the College for Financial Planning, and is certified in point-and-figure technical analysis from Dorsey, Wright & Associates.

Jon was born in New York and grew up in Coral Springs, Florida. Today, he lives in Jupiter with his wife, Giselle, and their three children, two daughters and a son. One of Jon’s daughters works in the marketing department for an international candy retailer, the other daughter is majoring in documentary film production at Emerson College, and Jon’s son is majoring in applied economics at Cornell University. In his free time, Jon enjoys traveling, playing softball and watching lacrosse. He is certified as a Level 1 sommelier, so naturally his interests also include wine collecting and wine/food pairing. He is a former member of the board of directors for the North Palm Beach County American Cancer Society.

Thomas Tulp

Thomas Tulp is the CEO and Founder of Semper Augustus Consulting, LLC, which provides advice and consulting services to top tier domestic and international banks and financial service companies on matters that include legal entity structuring, financial market structure, regulatory compliance, electronic trading, sales & trading systems design & integration, operational efficiencies, and financial reporting. He is a venture investor and Board Advisor in a portfolio of early and mid-stage business enterprises including medical devices, renewable energy, and real estate.

Mr. Tulp’s experience includes over 30 years in financial services. He retired from Morgan Stanley (MS) as a Managing Director after spending 20 years in roles that included serving as Global COO for Morgan Stanley’s fixed income Interest Rate & Currency Division, COO Municipal Securities & Public Finance, Head of Municipal eCommerce, bond underwriter, and trader. In his eCommerce role, he was a founder and Board Member of TMC Bonds, which is currently a global leader in multi-product fixed income trading, sales, distribution, portfolio analytics, and automated decision strategies. In his various roles, his oversight included etrading, Legal & Compliance, Quantitative Strategies, Analytic Modeling, IT, Operations, Regulatory & Financial reporting Tax Matters, Regulatory Relations, and Vendor Management. Mr. Tulp currently holds the following FINRA securities registrations: Series 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 24, 52, 53, 63, 79.

Prior to MS, Mr. Tulp served as a Vice President and trader at CS First Boston, Institutional Broker and Partner at Cantor Fitzgerald, Senior Vice President at S&P JJ Kenny, and began his career as a Senior Financial Analyst at Cablevision Systems Corporation.

Mr. Tulp holds a BS (Finance & Economics) and MBA (Finance) from the University of Bridgeport.

Mark Tibbles

Mark Tibbles is the Managing Director of Strategic Stage Ventures, LLC. and a former Owner/Partner and Director of Intuitive Technology Group, one of the nation’s leading Symantec Partners, holding the coveted National Premier Partner status, providing endpoint management, security and staffing solutions. Intuitive Technology Group (ITG) received a prestigious #2 ranking in Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal 2012 and #16 in 2013 Fast 50 Companies and The 2012 (#461) Inc. 500 List and 2013 (#764) Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest Growing Companies. Intuitive Technology Group was sold in 2017.

Prior to that, Mr. Tibbles was President and Founder of Minnesota based PRC Consulting, Inc. beginning in 1998. PRC Consulting specialized in the management and implementation of IT projects for Fortune 1000 companies. PRC was sold in 2013.

Additionally, Mr. Tibbles is currently an Owner and Director of STEM Fuse, LLC the largest provider of digital K-12 STEM curriculum in the U.S. used by over 7,000 schools in all 50 states reaching over 2.1 million students.

Mr. Tibbles has spent most of his career as a serial entrepreneur, business owner and Corporate Director and is an active venture investor in and advisor to technology, life science and medical device companies. Other companies on which Mr. Tibbles serves as an Independent Director and a Member of the Board of Directors are Imricor Medical Systems Inc. and NuAx, Inc. Additionally, Mr. Tibbles maintains Board Observer status with Cardialen, Inc. Previous, Mr. Tibbles served on the board for Ativa Medical, Inc.

Phil Styrlund

As CEO of The Summit Group, Phil is a recognized thought leader on business value transformation as part of the go-to-market strategies of some of the world’s premier organizations, both in the public and private sectors. In addition to his keynote presentations and engaging programs, Phil serves as a coach, mentor, consultant, and advisor to top leaders across a range of industries and has delivered sessions in over 40 countries. Recently, Phil was elected to the Board of Directors for SAMA (Strategic Account Management Association). He also leads the CEO Forum as part of the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC.

Phil has written for, or been cited in, articles in leading publications that include: The Wall Street Journal, The National Account Management Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Inc., Fast Company, as well as in several best-selling books including Adversity Quotient and The Power of Purpose. In mid-2014, the book Relevance: Matter More will be released; co-written by Phil. He is also a contributing author to the recently-released book Crisis of Disengagement: How Apathy, Complacency, and Selfishness Are Destroying Today’s Workplace.

His career includes key leadership positions with US West and ADC Telecommunications. Phil also teaches in various University and Executive Education programs, and has Masters Degrees in Business Administration and Telecommunications Science. He currently is engaged in a Doctorate Program at Middlesex University in London.

Will Price

Will founded Next Frontier Capital to partner with mission-driven, talented entrepreneurs to build Montana technology companies of impact, utility, value. Will’s career spans venture capital investing as well as operational, transactional, and advisory roles at both public and private companies. With a Montana family history dating to the 1850s, Will is passionate about investing in the state’s promising future.

Prior to Next Frontier Capital, Will served as CEO of Flite, an advertising and analytics platform. In 2016, Flite was acquired by Snap, the parent company of SnapChat. During his six year tenure, Will built a market leading organization capable of serving and analyzing billions of ad interactions, sold enterprise customers such as Procter & Gamble, The New York Times, and LinkedIn, raised capital from leading venture capitalists, including Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, and strategic customers Conde Nast, Jive Software, and Publicis.

Previously, Will served as a Managing Director at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, where he focused on SaaS and open source. Will helped lead investments in Mulesoft, Sonatype, SlideRocket, Flite, among others. Will joined Hummer Winblad from Pequot Capital, where he focused on software investing. Earlier in his career Will worked for Morgan Stanley in NYC, Hong Kong, and the ASEAN markets focused on the privatization of state-owned assets.

Will represents Next Frontier Capital on the boards of SiteOne Therapeutics, Submittable, Phoenix Labs, Quiq, OppSource, and Orbital Shift. In addition, Will serves on the board of the National Venture Capital Association.

Will graduated from Harvard College, studied Mandarin at Nanjing University, and earned his M.B.A from Northwestern University, where he graduated at the top of his class. Will writes about venture, leadership, and entrepreneurship on LinkedIn.

Will is married and the father of two active boys. In addition to Next Frontier Capital and family, Will’s passions include coaching youth sports, the outdoors, and fundraising for conservation groups. He serves on the board of the Gallatin Valley Land Trust, MSU’s Tech Transfer Office, as an Industry Advisory Board Member for MSU’s Computer Science Department, as an ambassador for Thrive, and is a member of Bozeman’s Sunrise Rotary Club.

Richard Harjes

Richard is a General Partner at Next Frontier Capital and brings decades of investment experience to the fund. Along with his wife, he is co-founder of Willow Spring Ranch Montana, a ranch devoted to sustainably raising organic lamb for the local and national gourmet market.

Richard represents Next Frontier Capital on the board of Blackmore Sensors and Analytics, IronCore Labs, Ataata, and is a board observer of Clearas.

Prior to Bozeman, Richard had a long-term career in quantitative investments – computerized, model-based investment strategies employing statistical modeling and machine learning techniques, analyzing and making thousands of small investment decisions on a minute-by-minute basis. Throughout his career, Richard built, grew and/or managed a number of highly successful investment teams with PhD level expertise in statistics, computer science, math and physics. He was Managing Director of the Statistical Arbitrage business at Citadel Investment Group in Chicago, founding the group responsible for the quantitative trading of equities at the firm. Prior to this, he was Director of Research and partner at Numeric Investors, a quantitative equity fund in Boston where he founded investment strategies and ran the overall research effort. Early in his career, Richard was one of the founding members of the Alpha Strategies Group at Barclays Global Investors, contributing to that effort by establishing the group’s research platform, strong investment returns and exceptional client and asset growth. Richard has served on the faculties of Duke University and the University of Arizona and is published in major academic journals.

In addition to his business pursuits, Richard serves on the board of directors of the Children’s Museum of Bozeman. He founded and is one of the creative drivers behind the Museum’s STEAMlab – a hands-on, high-tech science and technology learning center focused on circuits, robotics and 3D printing, and expanding opportunities for the kids of Southwest Montana.

Michael Garvey

Mr. Garvey has three decades of experience in numerous private companies, including a career in Law Enforcement in New York State. An active investor in public and private ventures and an avid entrepreneur involved in numerous early stage companies, several of which​ have gone on to successful exits. The businesses cover diverse industries and include:

-A patented Telescopic Ladder that was sold to a private consortium

-An Internet Service Provider (ISP) that went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange, and

-License Monitor Inc. which Mr. Garvey founded in 1999 and built a highly successful SAAS (software as a service) business model serving the Northeast’s largest employers.

In 2003 License Monitor was New York State’s SBDC “High Tech Company of the Year” and in 2006 Mr. Garvey was inducted in New York State’s SBDC Business Hall of Fame for “Extraordinary Entrepreneurial Spirit.” In 2012, Mr. Garvey sold License Monitor in a private transaction to Solera Holdings. Mr. Garvey remains at License Monitor and serves as the Director of Business Development where he is involved in the national expansion of the company. ​ Mr. Garvey graduated from Fairfield University in 1989 with Degrees in Marketing and Management of Information Systems (MIS) and serves as a judge in Fairfield University’s annual National Business Plan Competition.

Mr. Garvey resides in the Hudson Valley, NY with his wife and three children.

Ramon Baez

Former Senior Vice President, Customer Evangelist and Customer Advocate of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. His current focus is to serve as an Independent Director for Large Corporations and Start-ups.

Ramón Baez retired from Hewlett Packard Enterprise in October 2016 when he served as the Senior Vice President, Customer Evangelist and Customer Advocate for Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

In this role, Ramón was championing customer centricity. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s believes in relationship to drive the company’s business. He advised customers and partners through frank peer-to-peer discussions on how to make and implement decisions about emerging digital technologies in their operations, products and business models; which will have a positive impact in the market place.

Ramón joined Hewlett-Packard in 2012, as a senior vice president and global chief information officer (CIO), a role in which he oversaw the worldwide information technology (IT) strategy and all of the company’s IT assets that supported Hewlett-Packard employees and helped to drive strategic company priorities. This included global application development, the company’s private cloud, IT security, data management, technology infrastructure, and telecommunication networks. He also served as chairman of enterprise-wide Diversity & Inclusion Board, an entity that serves as the strategic governing body for global diversity and inclusion (D&I) at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The board works closely with company leaders to champion the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

His career spans 40 years at global Fortune 100 companies in the manufacturing, packaged goods, aerospace and defense industries, and products and services for the scientific community. Prior to HP, he held chief information officer positions at Kimberly Clark Corp., Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. and Honeywell’s Automation and Control Solutions group. Ramón began his career at Northrop Grumman, where he spent 25 years and finished as CIO for its electronics systems sensor sector.

He serves on Boards of Directors for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Hispanic IT Executive Council (HITEC) Foundation, OppSource.com, and Shared2you, Inc.

He continues to serve on Boards of Advisors for DocuSign, Trpz.com, and STEM Fuse.

He deeply believes that business leaders need to take excellent care of themselves, as if they were corporate athletes.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of La Verne in California.

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